Shoe Glue Banned in Fight Over Street Crime -- Rio de Janeiro

[henslee]

State legislators banned the sale of shoe glue in Rio de Janeiro because too many people were sniffing it in the crime-ridden Brazilian city.

Street children often can be seen sniffing glue from plastic bottles in Brazil's tourist mecca, where authorities are fighting a wave of muggings by youth gangs.

"Shoe glue serves a good purpose when used by shoemakers, but it also is an extremely strong narcotic and its free sale contributes to the moral degradation of youths and boosts crime levels," the bill's author, Paulo Melo, said on Wednesday.



http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=7161215

[Must_B_Free]

1. well known for years

I saw a movie about these kids. I Forget the title. Tragic the life these poor orphans have on the street.

"I'll Zap you!"

[imenja]

2. Pixote

a great but heart wrenching film. The children used were not actors but actually street children.

[sherilocks]

5. Is Pixote a different movie?

Sorry, I didn't see your post, until I posted City of God. But I would be interested in seeing more on this subject.

[imenja]

7. Pixote is an earlier film

I think it's better than City of God, though I liked that film as well. It is directed by Hector Babenco, who went on to make "Kiss of the Spiderwoman." He more recently made "Carindiru" and "Before Night Falls," neither of which I have yet seen.

Links to a bit of info on Pixote:

NYTimes review of the film http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=38263

some additional background
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/03/25/pixote.html


There was a subsequent film made by a different director called "who killed Pixote." Sometime after filming "Pixote," the little boy was killed.

I hope you locate it. It's not an easy movie to watch, but it is very important.

[henslee]

10. deleted.

[truthisfreedom]

3. finally.

took them long enough. somebody should make a shoe glue that's non-sniffable.

[jmowreader]

9. The company that makes the glue claims to be working on it

http://pangaea.org/street_children/latin/strib4.htm

The H.B. Fuller site: http://www.hbfuller.com/. They manufacture the product in question, Fuller's Resistol. There are other shoemaking adhesives down there, but the glue-sniffers are known as resistoleros.

This seems to be a long and complex story with no heroes.

Here's what I'm wondering: The reason solvent-based glues have traditionally been used in shoemaking is that they are waterproof, which is a good characteristic in a shoe adhesive. Single-component polyurethane adhesives, like Gorilla Glue and Sikabond, are also waterproof and they're non-sniffable. These glues are more expensive than solvent-based glues, but is the cost high enough to make shoes unaffordable?

[sherilocks]

4. The movie is City of God

Glue is not the only problem these kids have. Good movie about youth gangs in Rio.

[SweetLeftFoot]

6. Great flick

[imenja]

8. Brazil has the second highest rate of illegal drug consumption

in the world, followed by the US of course. Obviously drugs aren't the core of the problem. Poverty is, and the drug traffickers use the street children to sell drugs so that they themselves avoid prosecution. Poverty leads to crime and violence makes it nearly impossible for children to find ways out of that poverty.